Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words still hold true more than a hundred years later. American men and women are enslaved by the chains of a mounting debt that is beginning to suffocate our nations’ youth. The final piece in this three-part series on higher education in America focuses on a significant, alarming milestone: Americans now hold more than $1 trillion in student loan debt. According to CNN, as of 2015, 40 million Americans have accumulated this monumental student debt now totaling a staggering $1.2 trillion.

The Chains of Debt

According to the Wall Street Journal, “the average class of 2015 graduate with student loan debt will have to pay back a little more than $35,000.” That is more than double what student borrowers owed the year I was born in 1993, after adjusting for inflation. In fact, student loans have increased by 84% since 2008 (the onset of The Recession). This happens to be the only type of consumer debt that did not decrease over that time, according to a study by Experian.

Not only has student loan debt increased, but the proportion of students who have found the need to take out loans in order to pay for their education has also increased. In 2015, approximately 71% of bachelor’s degree recipients will have took out at least one type of student loan, compared to two decades ago when only half of college graduates had to take out a loan.

Our parents are also feeling the rising cost of higher education. According to Mark Kantrowitz’s analysis, among parents who received loans to cover the cost of a child’s education, their average debt in 2015 was $30,867. Furthermore, roughly 18 percent of college graduates had their parents take out loans on their behalf.

The Lone Star State Is Not Alone

Texas graduates are managing their student loan debt comparatively better that the rest of the nation, but not by much. The cost of college is increasing rapidly, rising about three times faster than inflation. As a result, between 2004 and 2012 the average Texas student debt balance grew by 61 percent, while inflation increased by only 22 percent.

The average Texas student had a loan debt that was about 8 percent lower than the national average, $22,600 but this average debt still amounts to only half of what the average Texan under 30 makes in a year.

According to Susan Combs, the former Texas Comptroller, Texas college students make an “Investment in the future that will only make it hard for them to create that future, to own a home or a car, and to start families of their own.”

Dazed and Delinquent

Of all open student loan accounts, 61 percent, about $727 billion, are in the repayment period, the remaining account holders are either still in school or in some type of deferment period. Nearly 33 percent of Americans who are in the repayment stage of their student loans are at least a month behind on their payments. In other words, one in three Americans has defaulted on their student loan debts.

In Texas, 20 percent of all student debt holders were more than 90 days delinquent on their debt. Across the nation, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the number of student loan borrowers who have entered into default has doubled in the last decade.

Subsequently, in 2014 alone, the United States Government spent approximately $9.2 billion on rehabilitating, servicing and monitoring defaulted federal student loans. Noting that less than half of American college students will graduate; students who have left without a degree are ten times more likely to default compared to their graduated peers.

But here is my opinion. I have made a conscious effort not to suggest any solutions to the state of higher education in America; I will leave that for you and your politicians. Furthermore, I have made it clear to distinguish and separate my own opinions from the facts, as I believe the latter should be used to develop your own views.

Finally, I urge you to dive deeper into the wealth of information regarding education in America. I do not intend to provide you with all of the facts, nor provide you with facts entirely impartial, as facts are only important in the context of people’s lives. Instead, my intention is to spark an interest within you, to learn more, discover more and become more involved with the issues that matter to you and the world around you.